The MTF announced plans last Friday to deploy a new version of its matching engine and modify the infrastructure between its data centres by 6 March. The upgrade will improve Turquoise’s maximum achievable throughput by 150% and halve its latency to below one millisecond. Turquoise’s current peak capacity is 14,000 incoming messages per second.

CIO Yann L’Huillier told theTRADEnews.com that Turquoise is in discussions with Euro CCP, its central counterparty (CCP), about expanding its clearing services.

“We are working very closely with EuroCCP on trying to open multiple clearing houses, something our customers are also very bullish about,” said L’Huiller. “However, an agreement between CCPs must be agreed first. When this happens, we will connect as soon as we can.”

EMCF, a CCP owned by Fortis and exchange group Nasdaq OMX – which clears for Turquoise’s rival MTFs Nasdaq OMX Europe, BATS Europe and Chi-X – signed a memorandum of understanding this week to support interoperability with SIX x-clear, a CCP owned by Swiss financial services group SIX Group.

L’Huillier said demand for greater trading speeds remained strong. “We don’t have an issue with capacity or latency but more clients have a need to trade as fast as possible, so we are aiming to stay on the top tier,” he said. “When we adjust it, I believe we will be the fastest, or equivalent to the fastest, European trading venue.”

Turquoise has no specific plans for further performance upgrades. “But the European landscape is moving very fast, so we may need to add more hardware depending on trading patterns. These can be done in around three weeks.”